TO HORATIO GATES J. MSS. - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 8 (Correspondence 1793-1798) [1905]
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The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 8
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TO HORATIO GATESJ. MSS.
Philadelphia, May 30, 1797.
Dear General,—
I thank you for the pamphlet of Erskine enclosed in your favor of the 9th inst, and still more for the evidence which your letter affords me of the health of your mind, and I hope of your body also. Erskine has been reprinted here, & has done good. It has refreshed the memory of those who had been willing to forget how the war between France and England has been produced; and who, apeing St. James’, called it a defensive war on the part of England. I wish any events could induce us to cease to copy such a model, & to assume the dignity of being original. They had their paper system, stockjobbing, speculations, public debt, moneyed interest, &c., and all this was contrived for us. They raised their cry against jacobinism and revolutionists, we against democratic societies & anti-federalists; their alarmists sounded insurrection, ours marched an army to look for one, but they could not find it. I wish the parallel may stop here, and that we may avoid, instead of imitating, a general bankruptcy and disastrous war.
Congress, or rather the representatives, have been a fortnight debating a more or less irritating answer to the President’s speech. The latter was lost yesterday, by 48. against 51. or 52. It is believed, however, that when they come to propose measures leading directly to war, they will lose some of their numbers. Those who have no wish but for the peace of their country, & its independence of all foreign influence, have a hard struggle indeed, overwhelmed by a cry as loud & imposing as if it were true, of being under French influence, & this raised by a faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or such as are English in all their relations & sentiments. However, patience will bring all to rights, and we shall both live to see the mask taken from their faces, and our citizens sensible on which side true liberty & independence are sought. Should any circumstance draw me further from home, I shall with great cordiality pay my respects to you at Rose Hill, & am not without hope of meeting you here some time.
Here, there, & everywhere else, I am with great & sincere attachment & respect, your friend and servant.
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